Collapsible bottle-carrying container



Dec. 16, 1969 KASHICHI HIROTA COLLAPSIBLE BOTTLE-CARRYING CONTAINERFiled July 22, 1968 FIG.3

INVENTOR. KASHICH! WROTA vA'a-ow' nited States Patent US. Cl. 220-113 3Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A collapsible plastic bottle-carryingcontainer composed of four side walls so arranged as to define a cavityof rectangular horizontal cross-section, at least one partition walldisposed in said cavity dividing the cavity into a plurality ofbottle-receiving compartments and elongate, thin strip like bottommembers disposed in the bottom end of each of said bottle-receivingcompartments with the planes thereof disposed in a vertical direction;said Side walls, said partition wall and said bottom members beingconnected with each other through thin wall portions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to acollapsible plastic bottle-carrying container.

In selling a bottled beverage, e.g. a bottled juice, in a lot (forexample, in a half dozen), it is customary to use a portable containerfor containing the bottles therein. For this purpose, paper containershave been developed heretofore but these conventional paper containersare not economical because they are discarded after a single usage,namely they are used only for selling a bottled beverage and not usedwhen the empty bottles are recovered from individual households. Underthe circumstances, a bottle-carrying container has been desired which isconveniently used not only for selling a bottle beverage but also forrecovering the empty bottles and which is tough and durable for repeateduse.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention contemplates theprovision of a bottle-carrying container of plastic material which isdurable to be used repeatedly and collapsible for storage when not inuse.

According to the present invention, the plastic-made bottle-carryingcontainer has four vertical side walls which are connected with eachother at the corners through thin wall portions defining a cavity ofsubstantially rectangular horizontal cross-section, and in the cavity isdisposed at least one partition wall by which said cavity is dividedinto a plurality of bottle-receiving compartments. The partition wall isconnected with any one of the side walls at each vertical edge thereofthrough a thin wall portion. In the lower portion of eachbottle-receiving compartment, defined by the side walls and partitionwall, is provided at least one bottom member having a slightly elongatecross section in a vertical direction, said bottom member being alsoconnected with the side wall or partition wall through a thin wallportion. The container of the present invention having a structure asdescribed above can be collapsed by folding the respective members oneon another at the thin wall portions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of apreferable embodiment of the container according to the presentinvention, with a portion broken away to show the interior of thecontainer;

3,484,019 Patented Dec. 16, 1969 lCC FIGURE 2 is a side view, partlybroken away, of the container shown in FIGURE 1;

, FIGURE 3 is an end view, partly broken away, of the container shown inFIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a cross section taken along the line IVIV of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 5 is a view, similar to FIGURE 4, of the container in anintermediate position during collapsing.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in the drawings, thebottle-carrying container 1 of the present invention has four sidewalls, 2, 2, 3, 3 which are connected with each other at the cornersthrough thin wall portions 4 defining a substantially rectangularcavity. The cavity interior of the side walls is equally divided intotwo sections widthwise by a longitudinal partition wall 5 which iconnected with the side walls 3, 3 at the opposite edges respectivelythrough thin wall portions 6. Each of the sections separated by thepartition wall 5 is further equally divided into three sectionslongitudinally by two transverse partition walls 7, whereby threesubstantially square bottle-receiving compartments 8 are formed on eachside of the longitudinal partition wall 5. Each of the parition walls 7,as shown in FIG. 4, has one end connected with the side wall 2 or 2through a thin wall portion 9 and the other end with the partition wall5 similarly. In the bottom end of each bottle-receiving compartment 8are provided two thin strip-like bottom members 10 which are extendingtransversely with the planes thereof disposed in a vertical direction.As may be apparent from FIG. 4, the bottom members 10 each have one endconnected with the side wall 2 or 2' through a thin wall portion 11 andthe other end with the partition wall 5 similarly through a thin wallportion 11. The partition wall 5 extends upwardly to provide a handle 12as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

The container of this invention is molded integrally of a soft plasticmaterial and used in the position shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. When not inuse, the container may be collapsed simply by a force applied thereon indirections A and A as shown in FIG. 5. The collapsing of the containercan be attained very easily since the bottom members 10 each consist ofan elongated thin strip and are positioned with their planes disposed ina vertical direction, and further the respective members are connectedwith each other through the thin wall portions.

What is claimed is:

1. A collapsible plastic bottle-carrying container comprising fourvertical side walls connected with each other through thin wall portionsso as to define a cavity of rectangular horizontal cross-section, atleast one partition wall so disposed as to divide said cavity into aplurality of bottle-receiving compartments and having the opposedvertical edges thereof connected integrally with opposed ones of saidside walls through thin wall portions, and at least one elongate thinstrip-like bottom member disposed transversely of the bottom end of eachof said bottle-receiving compartments with the plane thereof disposed ina vertical direction and connected with one of said walls at each endthrough a thin wall portion.

2. A collapsible plastic bottle-carrying container comprising fourvertical side walls connected with each other through thin wall portionsso as to define a cavity of rectangular horizontal cross-section, afirst vertical partition Wall disposed in said cavity longitudinallythereof equally dividing said cavity into two sections widthwise, atleast one second vertical partition wall disposed in each of saidequally divided sections transversely thereof equally dividing therespective sections into a plurality of bottle-receiving compartments ofsubstantially square hori- Zontal cross-section, and at least oneelongate thin striplike bottom member disposed transversely of thebottom end of each of said bottle-receiving compartments with the planesthereof disposed in a vertical direction, said first partition Wallhaving the opposed vertical edges thereof connected integrally withopposed ones of the side walls through thin wall portions, said secondpartition walls each being connected integrally at one vertical edgethereof with another of said side walls and with said first partitionwall at the other vertical edge through a thin Wall portionrespectively, and said bottom members each being connected integrallywith one of said side walls at one end and with said partition Wall atthe other end through a thin wall portion respectively.

3. A collapsible plastic bottle-carrying container as defined in claim2, wherein said first partition wall extends upwardly to provide ahandle.

, 4" References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1950 Kowal 2201l3 X4/1958 Brackett 220-2l 6/1968 Hirota 220-111 10/1968 Miscoe 2206 X US.Cl. X.R.

